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Cucumbers a Blanc

Cucumbers cooked in béchamel sauce with butter, sugar, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 264 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cucumbers a Blanc

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Peel and cut the cucumbers into 2‑inch pieces, leaving the seeds.

  2. In a saucepan, combine cucumbers, sugar, butter, and shallots.

  3. Cook over moderate heat for 10 minutes without breaking the cucumbers.

  4. Cover with white broth.

  5. Simmer until tender.

  6. Remove cucumbers with a large spoon.

  7. Drain on a sieve.

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, combine béchamel sauce and white broth.

  2. Skim off butter.

  3. Reduce until thick.

  4. Add cream.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

Finish and serve

  1. Return cucumbers to the pan to warm up.

  2. Serve immediately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cucumber + shallottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together264 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Make up the bulk of the dish, becoming tender when simmered gently in broth.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel, and helps the cucumbers cook gently in the pan.
Béchamel sauce
Forms the thick, creamy base that coats the cucumbers.
Cream
Adds richness and smooths the sauce, giving it a velvety texture.
Shallots
Add a mild aromatic onion flavour that supports the cucumbers.

The step that matters

Cook the cucumbers without breaking them. Cucumber pieces are soft and watery once cooked, so gentle moderate heat and careful handling keep them intact. Vigorous boiling or rough stirring breaks down the cell structure, making them mushy and cloudy the sauce.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, shallot, sauce, cream, pepper):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, shallot, sauce, cream, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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